OSdata.com

Age

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old and reliable

The potential advantage of an older operating system is that it has had years of heavy use that has led to greater dependability and fewer bugs and crashes.

Of course, this only applies if the maker of the operating system has put effort into bug fixes.

As an example, the programmers working on LINUX invest huge effort into ridding their operating system of even the smallest bugs, while Microsoft (Windows) has the policy of ignoring bug fixes unless the bugs affect a substantial percentage of their customers. Some cynical observers believe that Microsoft intentionally includes bugs to increase the profitability of their paid technical support services.

Bill Gates, when questioned about the more than 10,000 known bugs Microsoft acknowledged existed in Windows 98, claimed There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed. The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. Its the stupidest reason to buy a new version I ever heard.

Another potential advantage of an older operating system is the existence of a larger library of available programs.

new and advanced

The potential advantage of a new operating system is that it can introduce important new ideas or techniques without the "drag" of supporting legacy software.

BeOS is an example of a new operating system built with the specific intent of being able to incorporate all new ideas and techniques.

NeXT is an example of an operating system that is fairly old but has some of the most modern and advanced features of any operating system available (especially Yellow Box, Web Objects, and EOF). Rhapsody (also known as Mac OS X Server) incorporates the dependability and new ideas of NeXT with the ideas from the revolutionary Macintosh OS.

1.1 MB QuickTime movie of Bill Gates explaining his criteria for selecting the best operating system.(transcribed below for those who dont want to take the download time to see the video clip)

To create a new standard, it takes something thats not just a little bit different, it takes something thats really new and really captures peoples imagination and the Macintosh, of all the machines Ive ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.  Bill Gates

initial release

The following chart shows the release dates of the first version of each listed operating system, with operating systems listed in chronological order:

OSdata.com is used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the world

A web site on dozens of operating systems simply cant be maintained by one person. This is a cooperative effort. If you spot an error in fact, grammar, syntax, or spelling, or a broken link, or have additional information, commentary, or constructive criticism, please e-mail Milo. If you have any extra copies of docs, manuals, or other materials that can assist in accuracy and completeness, please send them to Milo, PO Box 1361, Tustin, CA, USA, 92781.